


The Dark Wolf

by Aly_H



Series: Two Wardens and a Lady [8]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: (I hate tagging), City Elf, Denerim, F/F, Family, Gen, M/M, The Dark Wolf - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-24
Updated: 2017-04-24
Packaged: 2018-10-23 20:30:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10726665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aly_H/pseuds/Aly_H
Summary: Recently a new hero-like figure has joined the stories of the Wardens and the Lady Rebel in the rumors of Denerim.Except the Dark Wolf isn't a hero of legend. It's the Tabris Twins not quite sure how they ended up with a fancy name and a story when they're a pair of city elves with no real goal besides trying to make things better for their people. Plus, maybe, they know a Warden?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Part of the "Two Wardens and a Lady" series that follows the adventures of Wardens Falcon Surana and Fen Mahariel and their allies through Ferelden during the Blight.
> 
> This work features: The Tabris twins, Evander and Serena.  
> Also a brief appearance by the Wardens & company.

 “The Dark Wolf will tear your throat out if you’re not careful,” one of the soldiers advises his friend who is leering in a rather unattractive manner at the red haired elf woman.

_No_ , she thinks: _Not just for being gross anyways, try and touch me and I might._

Dark Wolf, vengeance of the elves.

Dark Wolf, protector of the penniless.

Dark Wolf, the noble’s nightmare.

Dark Wolf.

Ferelden was desperate for heroes, and the stability they brought – the Wardens had been declared criminals but already the story of how a catastrophe at the Circle of Magi had been calmed by the supposed rebel Wardens had spread. In the North they spoke of the Rebel Lady whose war on Howe and anyone else who might take advantage of the region was earning her the affection of the population. Denerim’s Dark Wolf wasn’t a noble, selfless knight-like hero risking all for them as the others whose legends were beginning were. A thief and sometimes a killer who targeted the wealthy and powerful and made them pay for the hurts inflicted upon people. Especially those that targeted the alienage’s population.

 For most people talk of heroes was just better than considering Lothering and the fates of other small towns and villages in the South left unprotected by their liege lords as a civil war began over the throne. Leave it to the nobles to fight over a country that wouldn’t exist anymore by the time they finished.

Except the Dark Wolf wasn’t _one_ person. It was two plus a story that was growing larger than the pair of them with each passing hour it seemed.

There were a few in the city who would know that the mysterious thief-protector was in fact the story that Slim Couldry and his network of informants (too many cousins, that one) had begun to claim credit for a series of supposedly impossible thefts that had been done by the Tabris twins.

Serena Tabris had always been a bit of a trouble maker, and then Vaughn Kendells ‘interrupted’ her wedding and with a stolen sword and dagger and in her torn wedding dress she, her brother and Soris had left a river of blood stretching from one end of the Arl’s estate to the other to free the other women. She’d taken the entirety of the blame for the massacre but as the guards were taking her to Drakon to wait her eventual execution a group of attackers had hit the patrol and freed her, her brother calling in the favors he was owed.

Evander Tabris was the calmer, less assertive of the two twins. He was usually inserting himself between people to break up arguments. There’d been a time when he’d considered taking his martial training and attempting to enter the Templar Order as the regular army and the guard were not options but the _hahren_ had talked him out of it, convincing him to stay in the alienage with his family. That and Rena and Soris needed someone to bail them out of trouble when they found it – and they _always_ found it.

Currently she was leaning against the bar in the Pearl, listening to her brother try to sweet talk some paid work out of Sanga – the pair work as bouncers or errand runners or occasionally the deliverers of the more violent ‘you’re unwelcome here’ messages. Technically they had enough to feed themselves through the next two years with just the minimal cut they’d taken from their work with Slim but they had no way to explain this windfall and so life had to continue as it had done so.

Evander was the ‘pretty one’ as far as anyone was concerned, with delicate, narrow features and hair just a shade too light to be considered red but with far too much color to be blond either. He wore it long and carefully kept but left down when he didn’t expect to be fighting – he carried leather strips so that this could be changed when needed. His skin was a few shades darker than her own, and a series of stripe-like tattoos curved along the edges of his face. Her hair, meanwhile, was a truer red. They shared the same hazel eyes capped with elegant brows.

“Alright,” Evander sighed, giving up on the work. “Anyone need to send word back to the alienage, or have their loved ones checked up on?”

Sanga frowned, “And how much you gonna be charging for that?”

“Nothing, well maybe some paper and ink so I can get down the details I need to look for right – it doesn’t cost me anything. Rena and I will be going tomorrow anyways.”

The Pearl’s mistress gave a soft ‘humph’ but fetched him the ink and paper and let her people know about his offer. Evander bought himself a drink and started chatting with the bartender, he would stay a while to make sure that people had time to find him.

Serena gave a soft sigh – there goes any chance of _doing_ anything today. She’s dressed in her armor – they both are – light leather stuff that is way more effective than it looks because Evander smooth talked his way into getting the sets made by the armorer Wade who really _was_ the best in Denerim.

Pushing off the bar she wandered over to the warrior pirate that had taken up residence in the Pearl while her ship was in town. Leave Evander to play the nice guy, she was going to see how she could do in Wicked Grace against the gorgeous foreigner. (Admittedly, though, she knew she was going to be a little too distracted by that low cut of her dress – tunic? - and the sleek muscles, and the pretty way her lips quirked to play as well as she might.)

Evander turned his head to watch her go and rolled his eyes. Not that he really begrudged his sister her flirting, it just hadn’t felt right for him to do so since the wedding, well, technically speaking it’d been an _almost_ wedding.

Still – hanging out at the Pearl meant they could avoid Slim giving them another job and he could keep an eye on the rowdy group of mercenaries that were getting a little too bold in one of the corners. Maker, didn’t Marchers learn _any_ manners?

So he got a drink, took down the names he needed to look for in the alienage, and acknowledged his sister when she signaled that she was leaving with the pirate woman – Isabela of the _Siren’s Call_. He’d made sure to get the name in case he had to go looking for Rena later on. She could usually handle herself but alcohol had been involved _and_ the Rivaini had a deadly edge to her that a pair of Denerim back alley brawlers couldn’t quite measure up to.

Although, frankly having his sister off canoodling with pirates was less worrisome than her ongoing disagreement with one of the city’s Red Jennies. He wasn’t even sure what had gotten that particular feud started (and honestly given the participants he wasn’t entirely sure there _was_ a reason for it, at least not one that would make sense to anyone but Sera).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note for Isabela: Working off the Dragon Age II version because THAT Isabela I have an easier time understanding and fitting into her history than I do the one we're given in the Pearl.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day found him, Rena and Slim in the market, watching a group of people file out of Genitivi’s place though everyone knew the scholar was off on one of his research ventures (otherwise he could be found asking people for obscure bits of familial legend throughout the city).

“Rena, stop making faces at Master Ignacio,” Evander commented as he saw his irritable twin doing just that out of the corner of his eye. Usually she had enough sense not to attempt to bait the _real_ professionals that came through town. Crows and Bards were people to be avoided.

Slim snorted, knowing that the scolding wouldn’t do anything to stop Serena, they’d known the half-blood all their lives practically.

He was from a slightly rougher patch of the alienage, closer to the docks, but their mothers had been friends and as the set had gotten older and the Tabris twins took a more active role in trying to make sure that their younger cousins were fed they’d come to rely on Slim for information. Evander had been helping him with Jenny business for years now, though Serena’s involvement with the anti-noble thefts and trickery had come only recently and she wasn’t keen on the pranks part.

“Don’t worry, Slim, she’s just got a headache,” Evander said, leaning back against the building. “I’m fairly certain getting us murdered by Antivans isn’t on the agenda.”

“Woah, that a Dalish?” Serena’s eyes finally going over the group that Slim had brought them out to see.

“Has to be with the tattoos,” Evander acknowledged, having never shared his twin’s fascination with the forest-dwellers. He rather _liked_ having a bed. Even if it was usually actually the floor because Shianni knew she had him twisted around her little finger and Serena would just bodily kick him off the bunk bed the three of them were supposed to share.

“He’s not the one you two should be interested in. The other elf.”

The twins exchanged a look – okay, odd that Slim wanted them to see someone without telling them who it was – before going back to observing the company.

Tallest of the number was a hornless Tal-Vashoth who seemed thoroughly annoyed by _everything_. Not much of a surprise there, honestly. None of them that passed through Denerim ever seemed happy. After him was a human in heavy armor carrying a sword and shield, real knightly looking type.

“The shem looks familiar,” Evander murmured, tilting his head but not quite placing where he knew that face.

The two large fellows blocked off views of the rest of the party as the brown haired elven leader – he had to be their leader given how the others were listening to him as he gestured. It wasn’t until the party broke into smaller groups and away from the door that they got a good look at who else was there. They were more relaxed as they fractured, probably intending to run personal errands and enjoy the market.

Accompanying the Dalish elf out of the city right away was a woman whose entire dress and the way she carried herself said ‘apostate’. Both twins had tangled with enough mages to be wary of anyone who carried a long staff in battle, in a city it wasn’t usually a pole weapon given the narrow confines in which fights tended to happen. Neither she nor her companion looked like the sort to enjoy what a city had to offer. The two big fellows and a slight red haired woman headed for Wade’s Emporium.

That left two elves and a mabari discussing where they wanted to go.

The taller of the two remaining elves (he was more average height while it was his companion who was slight) was a blond with darker skin than ran the norm in Ferelden. An elegant curving tattoo on one side of his face drew the eyes and everything about his movements told the watchers that he was a rogue – and more skilled than either of them. His eyes flicked over to them, and he gave them a dangerous smile before his attention returned to the slighter elf – a warning that he knew they were watching.

The second was a dark haired young man, his skin pale with dark colored eyes – brown, black, maybe dark blue? – and in that smile and the nose they can see someone familiar. Dressed in leather armor, like his companion, but he wasn’t wearing the rogue’s usual assemblage of knives and pointy stabby objects, instead he carried a staff which emitted a faint, chilly glow.

Serena stares a little open mouthed, her brows coming together as if she’s not quite sure of what she thinks she's seeing.

“Who were those people?” Evander turned to Slim.

“The Wardens – so, you think it’s him?”

“Could be,” Evander said, crossing his arms and tugging on the end of one of his locks of hair. “We’ll have to find out.”

“Thanks, Slim,” Serena hugged the information broker. “Tell your Ma I said ‘hi’.”

“Nuh-uh, I tell her that she’s gonna insist on you coming over for tea again and then one of my unmarried cousins is just gonna _happen_ to be by. Not doing that again, Rena.”

“Oh, c’mon, but I love your Mom’s tea,” she complained, focusing more on the familiar banter with a friend than worrying over how to handle the information that he’d brought them.

Evander smiled faintly, listening to them, as he contemplated the Warden Mage, watching as the younger elf’s gaze turned towards the sealed alienage gates (the only ones coming in and out of it right now were the criminal and very resourceful) before his companions distracted him and the set headed down the alley towards the Wonders of Thedas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know Sten's not Tal-Vashoth, but Evander's spent enough time chatting with Tal-Vashoth to know that it'd be highly unusual for a proper Qunari to be wandering around Ferelden with the group that Sten does and so he assumes that's what Sten is.


	3. Chapter 3

The Wardens don’t stay in town the first night they’re in the city, the one where Slim pointed them out. But they don’t leave town either, instead the next day they’re back, collecting gossip and information and running errands.

That’s fine, far as Serena is concerned: she’s curious about them and can watch them as she chats with different people in the market. The new Dwarf merchant, Gorim, for example has some interesting stories from Orzammar so she chatted with him and pointed out some of her fellow light-fingers that he should be wary of.

Gorim seemed to be rather fond of the way that the city’s Carta avoid her most days – she’s too much trouble to be worth it for them, and she has her brother to watch her back. Sure, they’ve gotten her good a few times but the only one who regularly worked Denerim’s streets that Serena was concerned about shooting her or anything similar was the blond elf brat that ran with the Red Jennies.

Then again Slim was the only Jenny that she got on with and _he_ wasn’t near so crazy. Plus they’d been friends before the Jenny business. (Andraste’s ass! – did that make her a _Friend_ of Red Jenny? No, she was going to blame all Jenny business on Evander. That was mostly his fault anyways.)

There are people around Denerim that Serena knows better than to mess with still: The Orlesian Bard that had taken up residence on the street just off the market, for example, was twenty shades of danger and that’s at least three too many for her. Also she wasn’t _completely_ crazy so much as she she’d grumpily make faces at Ignacio she gave him and Cesar a wide berth when she wasn’t shopping for poison.

The Wardens, today, had split up into two groups, one going to talk to the Bard with the handsome Dalish leading them while the mage and the blond human led the other group to Goldanna’s place.

_Huh, maybe they have laundry_? _Still I wouldn’t go to that shrew where I them_.

It didn’t take long for them to return to the market, and she watched as the black haired elf drew the human he was with to the side, talking to him in a gentle manner, a hand on his arm. Whatever had happened inside the house it hadn’t gone well.

She stood and stretched, giving Gorim her apologies and started to head out – she’d had enough of watching now. Plus she had finished a job for the Mage’s Collective and needed to collect, and then meet Evander.

She gave Kylon a jaunty wave and an obnoxious grin as she walked by his post, going to cut in the back street towards the Chantry. The Sarge frowned back at her: she’s quick on her feet and knows every escape route out of the Market, plus she’s not opposed to going up a wall and over a roof to lose him and has done so in the past. At that moment, the few thefts he _knows_ she’s guilty of aren’t worth trying to chase her down. Especially when even he has to admit that the Tabris twins are doing good work as the Dark Wolf.

Neither the thief nor the guard notice the shadow that follows her into the empty back street though. She becomes aware of another’s presence only a hair before a knife is at her throat. She froze, waiting in silence as the blade’s owner walked around, the weapon not moving from its place threatening her. The faintly bitter scent of deathroot reached her nose, making her lips draw into a tighter line.

The blond assassin from the Wardens’ group of oddities. Come to think of it, she had seen him leave the washerwoman’s home but not where he had gone after.

Any doubts that this man is – or at least has the training of – a Crow are gone as she waited for him to speak, knowing better than to try and go for her own blades. Even if he didn’t have a poisoned weapon at her throat, the odds in a fight between the two of them dipped sharply in his favor.

He’s smiling at her in a manner that might be deemed _flirty_ , “You have been watching my Grey Warden and I do not know if I like that, my dear thief. You are no Crow, I can tell that much.”

“Free agent – just local, is all,” she said carefully, not sure how much poison is on the blade, nor how concentrated it might be. Plenty of deathroot-based poisons aren’t deadly, but there are plenty that _are_ and she’s not going to test this one unless she has to.

Serena decided there that if she walked away from this encounter she was definitely taking Isabela up on her offer to teach her how to be a duelist.

“Indeed you are,” brown eyes trail over the younger rogue. “But I think, perhaps, ‘just’ may not be an entirely fitting description.”

When she didn’t say anything more he asked: “Why are you interested in the Warden?”

 “Trying to find out his name is all. Think I might know him.” The assassin asking questions was good for her help – at least marginally better than him deciding that she was trouble to let live, so she answered honestly.

“And why would you want to know that?”

“He’s a mage, probably the right age, right looks but it’s been twelve years since I’ve seen my cousin. Friend of a friend with the dwarves mentioned that he might’ve ended up with the Wardens.”

The blade withdrew, curiosity showing in the other elf’s eyes. “And your names, my dear thieves?”

Oh, so he _had_ noticed when Evander took a spot on the roof overhead. Now that there was no point in hiding the other Tabris twin dropped down from his perch and eyed the Crow. “You okay, Rena?”

The nickname was similar enough that Zevran wasn’t particularly comfortable hearing it but he didn’t let that show.

“I’m fine,” the woman nodded.

“Well then,” the lighter haired brother looked to the Antivan, “I’m Evander Tabris, that’s my twin sister, Serena.”

“Tabris?” The young lady was clearly the better card player because her brother’s tells were the ones that said that he had expected the surname to be unfamiliar.

“Falcon’s mother is our father’s sister. Actually he and his sister, Shianni, have different names too since they’ve got different fathers,” Evander said. “And Shianni uses ‘Tabris’ too.”

“And if I told you that my Warden’s name is not ‘Falcon’?”

“I’d ask if he’d started going by ‘Alim Surana’ after all,” the young man replied.

_Well, Zev, they certainly have the right name,_ the assassin considered the pair. “And what do you intend to do if the Warden is your cousin?”

“Nothing,” Serena replied, firmly – the expression on her brother’s face saying that it was a decision he disagreed with but had lost this particular argument. “If circumstances were different we’d tell him, as things are Rena and I can’t look after the people we’re responsible for. It’s just nice to know that family’s safe.”

“But since you know about us and you seem to be interested in protecting him, just let us know if we can help,” Evander added.

Serena glared at him outright.

The brother gave a shrug: “The Dark Wolf is already seen as anti-Loghain, why not be pro-Warden?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Zevran doesn't tell his Warden about his somewhat insane cousins. There will be trouble to come from that at a later date.

**Author's Note:**

> Some of ya'll may have seen the first version of this story to go up - I had originally cut Evander from my plans so that there'd be only one hero from each origin in this world but after sleeping on it I decided that Serena's character doesn't work on her own. She'd be bundling Shianni and Soris off to somewhere in the Marches after stealing everything not nailed down from some unlucky to fund said trip. And so I rewrote this as I originally planned.


End file.
